Missiles, rockets and other projectiles often use a seeker which gathers scene energy used for guidance and/or targeting purposes. A seeker is part of the guidance system and is typically mounted on the top or in the front of the missile or other projectile. In combination with refractive elements, a seeker typically uses a series of mirrors, lenses, and filters to focus, split and direct radio frequency signals, infrared signals, visible signals and/or other types of signals to respective receivers and often has a dome to protect the equipment. The radio frequency signals, infrared signals and visible signals may be used, for example, for imaging and targeting. The signals used by the seeker are first transmitted through the dome before being split and directed to their respective receivers by the mirrors, lenses, and filters. The missile, rocket or other projectile may have a processor to interpret the received radio frequency signal and infrared signal signals to track a target and to guide the projectile to the target.
The receivers (or sensors) designed to receive the scene signals may be protected from stray out-of-field signals by stray light (energy) baffles, which are designed to prevent unwanted energy to interfere with the desired scene energy. Typical stray light baffles are machined aluminum or some other material which is subsequently painted black to absorb stray and infrared light energy. However, the paint is often labor intensive to apply and has a tendency to flake or chip off which can then land on sensors and cause interference or undesirable light scattering. Further, after the paint has flaked or chipped off, the exposed aluminum or other material is less effective at absorbing undesirable signals or light. Alternately, a metal baffle is anodized or has a surface treatment for absorption of stray light signals. Such surface treatments, however, are much less effective than paint at absorbing stray light signals especially at large incidence angles.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have an improved stray light baffle which is not subject to the problems of current stray light baffles. Other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.